FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Aliana de la Guardia, general manager
[email protected]
(201) 951-6735 (m)
Guerilla Opera Closes Their Ninth Season with the World Premiere of Beowulf
by Hannah Lash
BOSTON, MA (April 12, 2016)—Guerilla Opera, in conclusion of their ninth season, presents the world premiere of
Beowulf with music and libretto by Hannah Lash, stage direction by Andrew Eggert, and scenic design by Julia
Noulin-Mérat. Lash’s Beowulf is a modern-day adaptation of the well know epic poem, in which Beowulf is a doctor
caring for his elderly mother and suffering from post-traumatic stresses upon his return from a recent war. He
discovers that his mother is being abused by the nursing home staff and removes her, determined to care for her
himself. In discussing the opera, composer Hannah Lash said:
My opera, Beowulf, is not an adaptation or retelling of the original legend. I used the
title and the name for the main character to evoke the archetype of a hero who
struggles to overcome a monster. It is a story about a former army doctor who suffers
from PTSD, experiencing a haunting flashback from his days in combat. Now as a civilian
doctor, he cares for his aging mother. It is a story about love, loss, and the sometimes
unbearable burden on those who take care of others.
Beowulf is approximately 70 minutes in duration, sung in English and plays for five performances: Friday-Sunday,
May 20-22 and Friday-Saturday, May 27-28, 2016. An audience talk-back will directly follow the Sunday, May 22
performance. All performances are in The Zack Box Theater at The Boston Conservatory at 8 The Fenway, Boston,
MA. Tickets are on sale and are $15 for general admission and $10 for senior citizens. All tickets are subject to a $2
fee. Tickets are free for students, as available, on the day of with a valid ID and must be claimed at the door via
student rush beginning one hour prior to the scheduled performance start time. To purchase tickets, visit
bostonconservatory.edu/tickets or call The Boston Conservatory Box Office at (617) 912-9222 (Wednesday-Friday,
12-5 p.m.).
Cast, Ensemble & Creative Team
Beowulf features the following cast instrumental ensemble: baritone Brian Church as Beowulf, soprano Aliana de la
Guardia (general manager) as the Mother, tenor Brendan P. Buckley as the Nurse, clarinetist Amy Advocat,
saxophonist Phillip Stäudlin, violinist Lilit Hartunian and percussionist Mike Williams (co-artistic director). Guerilla
Opera’s creative team features: stage director Andrew Eggert, resident scenic designer Julia Noulin-Mérat (director
of design and production), lighting designer Daniel Chapman, and resident costume designer Neil Fortin.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Live Streamed Performance (Saturday, May 28, 2016 at 8 p.m. EST)
Guerilla Opera will live stream the world premiere of Beowulf by Hannah Lash on Saturday, May 28, 2016 at 8 p.m.
EST from The Zack Box Theater at The Boston Conservatory. The live stream can be viewed at
https://livestream.com/guerillaopera and is free of charge to watch. Courtesy of Ball in Square Films.
Talk-Back with the Creative Team (Sunday, May 22, 2016)
Join in a conversation with the composer, director, cast, and creative team from Beowulf directly following the
performance on Sunday, September 20, 2015. Talk-backs are included with ticket purchases and are held in The
Zack Box Theatre at The Boston Conservatory.
This production is made possible through the generosity of Timothy and Jane Gillette and The Boston Conservatory
Ensemble-in-Residence program.
For more information, visit Guerilla Opera online at guerillaopera.com. Like Guerilla Opera on Facebook at
facebook.com/guerillaopera, follow them on Twitter (using #NewOpera and #BeowulfOpera) at @guerillaopera
and on Instagram at @guerillaopera.
ADDITIONAL 2015-2016 SEASON PRODUCTIONS AND EVENTS
Brandeis University Residency (Saturday, April 16, 2016)
Guerilla Opera participates in an artistic residency with New Music Brandeis at Brandeis University to produce a
semi-staged performance of short chamber operas by Brandeis graduate composers. This includes workshops lead
by the performers, stage director Nathan Troup, and design team and culminates with a performance during the
Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts in Slosberg Hall at Brandeis University.
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ABOUT GUERILLA OPERA
Guerilla Opera is an experimental opera company whose mission is to commission new chamber operas written
specifically for their ensemble of artists, and to perform in intimate theatrical settings without the use of a
conductor or formal music director. Visit our website at guerillaopera.com for more information about our ninth
season!
Press Opening/Final Dress Rehearsal (Thursday, May 19, 2016, 8 p.m.)
Guerilla Opera invites reviewers and all members of the press to attend their invite-only final dress rehearsal of
Beowulf on Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 8 p.m. in The Zack Box Theater at The Boston Conservatory in Boston, MA.
Contact General Manager Aliana de la Guardia directly at [email protected].
Contact: Aliana de la Guardia, general manager
[email protected]
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About the Composer – Hannah Lash
Hailed by The New York Times as “striking and resourceful… handsomely
brooding,” Lash’s music has been performed at the TimesCenter
(Manhattan), The Art Institute of Chicago, Tanglewood Music Center,
Harvard University, The Chelsea Art Museum, and on the American Opera
Project’s stage (New York City). Commissions include The Fromm
Foundation, The Naumburg Foundation, The Orpheus Duo, The Howard
Hanson Foundation’s Commissioning Fund, Case Western Reserve’s
University Circle Wind Ensemble, MAYA, and the Aspen Contemporary
Ensemble.
Lash has received numerous honors and prizes, including the ASCAP Morton
Gould Young Composer Award, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a
Fromm Foundation Commission, a fellowship from Yaddo Artist Colony, the Naumburg Prize in Composition, the
Barnard Rogers Prize in Composition, the Bernard and Rose Sernoffsky Prize in Composition, as well as numerous
academic awards. Her orchestral work was selected by the American Composers Orchestra for the 2010
Underwood New Music Readings. Her chamber opera, Blood Rose, was presented by New York City Opera’s VOX in
the spring of 2011.
In addition to performances of her music in the U.S., Lash’s music is well known internationally. In April of 2008,
her string quartet, Four Still, was performed in Kyev at Ukraine’s largest international new music festival, Musical
Premieres of the Season, curated by Carson Cooman. In the summer of 2010, her piece, Unclose, was premiered by
members of Eighth Blackbird at the MusicX festival in Blonay, Switzerland.
Recent premieres include Three Shades Without Angles for flute, viola, and harp, by the Boston Symphony
Chamber Players, a new orchestral work, Nymphs, for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and This Ease, for the Los
Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Other recent premieres include God Music Bug Music on January 6, 2011 with the
Minnesota Orchestra, the monodrama Stoned Prince by New York based ensemble Load Bang in April of 2013,
Subtilior Lamento with the Da Capo Chamber Players at Carnegie Hall in 2012, and Glockenliebe for three
glockenspiels with Talujon Percussion in December, 2012. Her 2011 orchestral work, Hush, was featured on the Los
Angeles Philharmonic’s Brooklyn Festival in April of 2013. This season, Lash receives the premiere of Liebesbrief an
Schumann by pianist David Kaplan, as well as a new work for string quartet, Menuet Antique et Fragile, featuring
the Flux Quartet.
Lash earned a Ph.D in composition from Harvard University in 2010. She has held teaching positions at Harvard
University (teaching fellow) and Alfred University (guest professor of composition), and she currently serves on the
composition faculty at Yale University School of Music. Read Lash’s complete bio at: hannahlash.com.
Contact: Aliana de la Guardia, general manager
[email protected]
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About the Director – Andrew Eggert
Eggert is an opera stage director and dramaturg based in
Chicago and New York City. He recently directed La
descente d’Orphée aux enfers with Gotham Chamber
Opera (2014), the Dallas Opera production of Tod
Machover’s Death and the Powers (2014; forthcoming
DVD), Alcina at the Napa Music Festival (2014), the U.S.
premiere of Clemency by James MacMillan for Boston
Lyric Opera (2013), and Bluebeard’s Castle starring
Samuel Ramey for Opera Omaha (2013). He enjoyed a
longstanding relationship with Chicago Opera Theater
where he directed Mosè in Egitto (2010) and La Tragédie
de Carmen (2009), and served eight seasons as an assistant director beginning in 2002. He is a regular collaborator
of stage director Diane Paulus having served as associate director on a number of projects including the world
premiere of Death and the Powers at the Opéra de Monte Carlo, as well as U.S. performances at the American
Repertory Theater and Chicago Opera Theater, Die Zauberflöte at Canadian Opera Company, and Gotham
Chamber Opera’s production of Il mondo della luna at the Hayden Planetarium. In 2015, he served as associate
director of Crossing by Matthew Aucoin in its world premiere production at the American Repertory Theater. As an
assistant director, he has worked with notable directors including David Schweizer, Kenneth Cazan, Lillian Groag,
Tazewell Thompson, Andrei Serban, Francisco Negrin, and James Robinson. He has been guest director at
Princeton University and the Yale Baroque Opera Project, and has worked with the young artist programs of
Glimmerglass Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. His new production of Mourning Becomes Electra was
selected as a winner of Opera America’s 2009 Director-Designer Showcase. As a dramaturg, he has worked with
Rebecca Taichman on Telemann’s Orpheus and Michael Counts on Mosè in Egitto, both for New York City Opera.
Eggert is a graduate of Yale University and earned a PhD in historical musicology at Columbia University, where he
also earned an M.A. and M.Phil. in historical musicology. He was appointed head of opera at the Chicago College of
Performing Arts at Roosevelt University beginning in 2013-2014. Read Eggert’s complete bio at: andreweggert.net.
Contact: Aliana de la Guardia, general manager
[email protected]
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